Positioning human factors in the user interface development chain

  • Authors:
  • Jonathan Grudin;Susan F. Ehrlich;Rick Shriner

  • Affiliations:
  • MCC, P.O. Box 200195, Austin, TX;Wang Laboratories, Inc., One Industrial Ave, Lowell, MA;Wang Laboratories, Inc., One Industrial Ave, Lowell, MA

  • Venue:
  • CHI '87 Proceedings of the SIGCHI/GI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and Graphics Interface
  • Year:
  • 1986

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Human factors professionals are not completely free to support the optimization of user interface design within the time span of individual software development projects. Interface design is constrained by conservative forces, such as the expectations of users of existing systems in the installed base and emerging de facto or formal standards. At the same time, human factors involvement with a particular product may ultimately have its greatest impact on future product releases. In this paper we explore an expanded time line for influencing product design. This time line brings middle- and upper-management concerns into focus, revealing critical opportunities for effectively positioning and applying human factors resources.